I would like to build a rig for video and audio editing. This is for a small home studio so I'm looking for a budget system. For video I'm using Ulead and Final Cut Pro and audio using Cakewalk and other sampling programs.(Firewire, USB, SATA) I have an Alesis Multimix Firewire mixer that is connected to my current Abit NF7-S XP1700+ Crucial DDR333 system but the audio is choppy and video editing locks up. I've always had compatibility problems with the nforce2 drivers and audio devices on the MB, so I'm thinking of getting a board with an Intel chipset this time. Any advice on the best chipset/MB for this type of system would be great.

Since your main concern is going to be the Input/Output of your firewire device, you might want to have a quick look through this thread... http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...recording.html (could even try PMing the original poster to see if he can send you in the right direction).

I still stand by my post in that thread that a person would probably be well served to find a good PCI add-on firewire if it's a crucial part of the computer.

I've been checking out the ASUS boards, lots to choose from. Gigabyte screwed me on an RMA'ed GA7VXP so I'm gonna have a hard time buying their products again. Are Combo DDR2/DDR3 boards worth considering?

That's a GREAT thread sswilson, thank you for the suggestion. I agree with the Firewire PCI addon, I'm not limiting my search to Firewire MBs only.

I bought a Texas Instrument 1394 PCI card for my mixer and will see how this runs on my current system. Most firewire mixer manufacturers recommended the TI firewire controller. From what I've read, it seems like theres allot of uncertainty in the hardware market right now and prices will be dropping soon. I'll buy a new rig then and have more MB choices than ASUS (which I think are great) and GIgabyte who are black listed.

A good example of the prices starting to drop is this Q6700 and EVGA 780SLI Combo for $499 at TD (TigerDirect.ca )